New Delhi: National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) is in the news for all the wrong reasons for the past few days. A Delhi court has declared NRAI's recent election null and void putting a question mark on the association's legal status.
The court agrees that NRAI office bearers are violating legal norms. In a stringent indictment of the NRAI office bearers the Patiala House Court has held the 2009 elections of the association invalid and barred the current President Digvijay Singh and the Honorary Secretary Baljit Sethi from holding any post or contest any association election in future too.
Singh has been the President of NRAI since 1999 while Sethi has held the post since 1985.
"We will challenge this in the High Court. This order will have no bearing because in 1993 we amended the Constitution," says Sethi.
The judgement pointed out that as per NRAI Constitution it was illegal for any member to hold office for more than two terms.
It also cautioned other sports federation from running sports bodies like personal fiefdoms, a move which would set the alarm bells ringing across the Olympics sports spectrum.
The order can serve as a warning to the likes of Indian Olympic Association President Suresh Kalmadi who has been holding the post since 1996, Randhir Singh (Indian Olympic Association Secretary since 1987), Archery Association of India President Vijay Kumar Malhotra and Badminton Association of India President VK Verma among others.
The court ruled that monopoly of a handful of people over a long tenure can affect selection of players and be detrimental to the development of the game, a scenario which defeats the very purpose of creating a sports federation.
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